Articles and tips from Pepperdine University's IT Technology and Learning group.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Keenan's Week One: Web Resources Review

Web Resources Review

by Keenan Kibrick

It is a pleasure to be a new contributor to the technology and learning blog. My name is Keenan Kibrick and I am one of the new Instructional Technologists on the team. I wanted to begin by posting a series of links to interesting articles towards improving classroom education. Each one is easy and quick to read, but offers a lot of good advice to help improve the classroom. I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I did.

10 ways to teach for
the google generation

Why I opened it:I
always want to know more about the next generation of students so I can help
improve education delivery to a group of students that grew up with different
values and beliefs in education then I have.

Why I read it:Once I
started reading the tips I couldn’t stop thinking about them.Having students grapple with big questions
without answers was an amazing idea, and from there they went into all the ways
online education tools can be used in the classroom.I would love to see these ideas used in more
classes.The rest follow suit as great
ideas that could easily be implemented in a classroom.It’s a quick read with great ideas that could
revolutionize classrooms.

It’s perfect for:Faculty who want to try new education strategies, faculty who are
struggling to relate to students, and faculty who want to design innovative
curriculum

Gamification Roadmap
infographic

Why I opened it:Gamification is a passion of mine and when I read of the idea of a
roadmap I wanted to see one person’s opinion of proper gamification.

Why I read it:Once I
opened the link realized my first opinion was wrong in a very good way.This isn’t a roadmap of a specific type of
way to look at gamification, it’s a roadmap to designing gamification anyway
you want.It’s not made for education,
and has a little bit of a business edge, but the concept can easily be applied
to the classroom.It goes over all
aspects of gamification from the type of people that are gamers, to the types of
different ways to gamify an area.It is
very good, and if a step doesn’t apply to you, just keep reading more and
you’ll get great gamification ideas.

It’s perfect for:Faculty
who already know only the basics of gamification, Faculty who want to design
gamified classes, Faculty who want an illustrated guide to a subject.

Extra Credits: Fail
Faster

Why I opened it:Extra Credits is one of the best video series there is, and has many
inspirational ideas for design and gamification.My favorite is even an episode on the
Gamification an education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94.When they made one on the concept of failing
faster (a concept I believe deeply) I had to watch it.

Why I watched it:This
was everything I imagined.It quickly
discusses the importance of failure in creating and generating
improvement.It’s a great video to make
you think about the importance of trying and failing and how through failure we
grow and improve.They do it in a quick
funny way I appreciate.They did a great
job and they really made a good explanation of the importance of failing early
a lot so you don’t fail when it counts.

It’s perfect for:Faculty who want to become more comfortable with the concept of failure,
faculty who want to take a risk and improve their class in a radical way,
faculty who want to learn the importance of trial and error in the class